The Canal

The wreck of 492

Mardonius's fleet was caught by a storm off Athos. Herodotus says 300 ships and 20,000 men were lost, some to sea creatures. The King did not want to round that cape again.

Herodotus 6.44

The Brygi by night

On the same march in 492 the Brygi, a Thracian people, fell on Mardonius's camp by night, killed many of his men and wounded him. He would not leave the land until he had subdued them. Herodotus records no fighting at the canal itself.

In the game: The level's great battle is the Brygi's night attack, set on the canal's ground.

Herodotus 6.45

The bridges over the Strymon

The men who dug the canal were also set to bridge the river Strymon, where grain was stored at Eion. The king of the Bisaltae, a Thracian people near the river, would not serve Xerxes and fled to Mount Rhodope. When his six sons marched with the King anyway, he had their eyes put out on their return.

In the game: The Bisaltae's raid on the bridge works is a dramatization.

Herodotus 7.24-25, 8.116

The canal

Herodotus says the canal was wide enough for two triremes rowed abreast, and that only the Phoenicians dug its sides sloping, so they did not collapse. Surveys since the 1990s found its line, about two kilometres long, under the fields.

In the game: The canal is the level's great work.

Herodotus 7.22-24; B. Isserlin and others, Annual of the British School at Athens (1994-2003)

Artachaees

The canal's overseer, Artachaees, was the tallest man in the army, says Herodotus, and had the loudest voice. He died at Acanthus, and the Greeks of the town honoured him as a hero.

Herodotus 7.117

Depots on the road

Food for the march was laid up in advance at stores along the Thracian coast, at White Cape, Tyrodiza, Doriscus, Eion and in Macedonia.

In the game: Supply Depots on the King's road fill with barley for the host.

Herodotus 7.25

The sea whipped

A storm broke the first bridges. Herodotus says Xerxes had the Hellespont given three hundred lashes and fetters thrown in, and beheaded the builders. Herodotus tells it to show pride; some historians see a ritual punishment of a river.

Herodotus 7.34-35

The new bridges

Two new bridges were laid on 360 and 314 ships, held by cables of flax and papyrus, then decked with planks and earth, with screens so the horses would not see the sea.

Herodotus 7.36

Abydos

From a white marble throne at Abydos Xerxes watched his army and fleet fill the shores and the sea, and wept: in a hundred years none of them would be alive. Herodotus gives him a long talk with his uncle Artabanus.

Herodotus 7.44-52

The plane tree

On the march through Lydia, Xerxes found a plane tree so beautiful that he adorned it with gold and left one of his Immortals to guard it.

Herodotus 7.31